Why are some countries still so rich and others so poor

[jossiel]

~snip~

That adds too! lack of education is also a primary problem why in Africa there are many children that starving to death. A person/family that doesn't have something to eat, tells their social status so it's sad to say that there are many people there doesn't have the capacity to work because they are living to survive and that's the only thing in their minds.

But with the thing about climate, I used to believe that the hotter the weather, the harder to survive.

Well those lazy people who are only depending on others or doesn't have the eagerness to get out of poverty will never be successful.

Are you implying the life of the rich is universally better? If yes for what reasons?

Yes, we know that living with financial freedom(rich) can put you out of the burden. You got something to eat, you can get what you want and you have the way to improve your way of living. (I'm not that rich but that's what I can see).

Opportunities for what exactly?

Livelihoods, working on a high paying job, get a proper education.

The western concept of opportunity doesn't apply to everyone

You're right.

[ocertie]

In common language, the terms "rich" and "poor" are often used in a relative sense: A "poor" person has less income, wealth, goods, or services than a "rich" person. When considering nations, economists often use gross domestic product (GDP) per capita as an indicator of average economic well-being within a country. GDP is the total market value, expressed in dollars, of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a given year. In a sense, a country's GDP is like its yearly income. So, dividing a particular country's GDP by its population is an estimate of how much income, on average, the economy produces per person (per capita) per year. In other words, GDP per capita is a measure of a nation's standard of living. For example, in 2016, GDP per capita was $57,467 in the United States, $42,158 in Canada, $27,539 in South Korea, $8,123 in China, $1,513 in Ghana, and $455 in Liberia (Figure 1).2

[coolcoinz]

Sometimes reading these questions make me feel like I'm in primary school teaching 8 year olds.
A country can be poor because of its political situation (like ongoing wars), geographical situation (lack of connection with transport routes, no sea access), geology (no natural resources, barren soil), too cold or too hot climate, that makes the living conditions harsh. The more of these things you can add to the list the worse for the country.

[peacefulpeace]

Human want are insatiable, the more technoligically advance a country becomes, the more she aspire for more prospects, the reason why some countries are rich and other are poor is greed, the rich countries continually want to feast on the poor, for she to remain poor. Lets take the case of Libya as a case study, Libya was a successful and technological advance country in a desert until America 'a bigger richer country' came into the picture, now Libya is a shadow of its former self, enrage by war. Hunger pestilence and starvation now the order of the day.

[luckybar]

Human want are insatiable, the more technoligically advance a country becomes, the more she aspire for more prospects, the reason why some countries are rich and other are poor is greed, the rich countries continually want to feast on the poor, for she to remain poor. Lets take the case of Libya as a case study, Libya was a successful and technological advance country in a desert until America 'a bigger richer country' came into the picture, now Libya is a shadow of its former self, enrage by war. Hunger pestilence and starvation now the order of the day.

America didn't like that Libya was creating it's own gold backed currency, thats the main reason for the invasion.

[angel55]

A lot of country leaders just steal all the wealth for themselves.  It is estimated Putin is worth over 300 billion from stealing money from it's citizens.

[Sithara007]

The perfect example is North and South Korea. Demographically, both the nations are quite similar. But huge gaps exist between the two, as far as living conditions are concerned. Another example is that of Yemen and Oman.

[Rizqi]

As far as I see rich countries and poor countries have many examples and their influence, internally and externally tied to each other, the natural rich countries in terms of leading the country, including 80% of the country's employees love the country so as not to do corruption, from outside countries inter-cooperative relations the country is so good that it builds trust and equals "profitable,
the impoverishment of many impoverished nations has many factors, there is no desire to maintain the integrity of the state or citizens so that politicians or leaders often do self-benefit instead of the public interest, and many others

[bernashka]

The richness and poverty of countries is affected by culture, economic institutions, government, natural resources, climate, and much more. And since all states have different, then the difference in the level of wealth is obvious.

[ptman]

other country are rich and still rich until now because of their natural resource such as oil and gas, while poor country is still poor because they are not making alternatives on what they are lacking and maybe because also of the ignorance on new technology.

[lockes007]

This global phenomenon can be viewed from a historical perspective. The rich countries in the modern day were once primitive like the third world countries, it was until when their discovery of free labor and raw materials in these third world countries that brought about the technological revolution of the 20th century.
Hence, the thriving and continuous position of the rich countries as hegemony is highly dependent on these poor countries who spend their meager  national income on goods and services only which the rich countries have a monopoly over.

[change7]

I believe that the development of a particular country is dependent on the citizens and government of that county, in most develop countries like is corruption free and when money is allocated for a particular project, it is used judiciously to carryout such project. But in the developing and undeveloped countries corruption has left them in the state of acrimony and without hope. In this countries when money is allocated for a project the people in charge redirect the money to their personal account.

[IndigoRed]

The richness and poverty of countries is affected by culture, economic institutions, government, natural resources, climate, and much more. And since all states have different, then the difference in the level of wealth is obvious.

Correct. From an economic perspective, productivity is the root cause of this disparity. The more productive the country is, the richer they are. And this productivity is impacted by their natural resources available, educational and healthcare system, infrastructure, availability of finance, etc. On a micro perspective however, countries behave like we do --We compete for dominance, some outsmart the others with better deals, while some will rob the other just to get ahead. This is the same reason why our environmental resources are depleting.
We've gotten so used to this gap between the rich and the poor, that it's impossible to even imagine equality or working successfully to solve world issues.

[Aaric]

The two major reasons in my eyes are natural resources and momentum. Momentum, when you're a poor country and you're lacking infrastructure, knowledge, poor are malnourished which also affects IQ, then it's almost impossible to get out of that hole.

[Bennix]

The reason why some countries are so rich and some are poor is inability of a leader to manage the resources in his country very well.I will use Africa and Asia as a case study Africa has alot of mineral resources but yet they are poor because their brains including their leaders are not working meaning they don't invest in advance technology, their leaders are cyphoning public fund into their personal  pocket and masses can't revolt to set up a working government ,but in some Asian countries, they don't have enough mineral resources but they invest in advance industrial technological and that why some countries are rich, while some are poor.

[Degeneral002]

For a county to be rich then the leaders of those country do believe in that progress of the country and and also try as much as possible to use the available resources to build the country and sack any of the cabinate member that's not keying into the vision  of growth in the country. And some countries are poor because even the leader believes in stealing government fun without any plan of developing it, by so doing the country will remain poor and even poorer.

[itsliss]

i think it has a lot to do about governance. every country is blessed with several resources from which the government can create wealth for the people through several laws and policies. the supposed rich countries of today are as a result of policies put in place by the government which in most case result in production and exportation. A lot of the poor countries have resources but chose to consume goods from other growing nations, this inhibits production and as such cause the people to be considered poor. every nation was once poor, some just chose to remain poor.

[Serco]

The government policy that has made the state orderly is a condition of progress in a country, if the country is not fair then technological and economic progress will be destroyed. There are so many corruption cases in every country that have harmed the state finances and this is what makes the country poor so it is left behind by other countries. However, if the state is fair and eradicates corruption then state policy will be regular to advance the country's economy.

[Jane Moore]

Nowadays globalization process opens bonders and makes all kinds of transactions faster, but vice-versa this leads to the fact that rich countries are enriched, and the poor become even poorer. This development gap can turn out very bad, so developed countries support the economy of the poor by lending to them and driving into long-term debt obligations.

[dauletbaeffberdakh]

Undeveloped countries are rotting from within. I live there myself. Officials steal money, but we suffer from the people, we do not have enough money.

Salary in many countries is 200-500 $. This is enough inside the country, but in foreign countries it is a penny.

The government will do this so that you can not leave the country because of your debts. Not enough money? Take the loan, mortgage or money at a percentage or die.